On March 6, Florida Atlantic University’s men’s basketball team (16-14, 9-8 AAC) traveled to Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Ala. for their last game on the road in conference play. The University of Alabama Birmingham Blazers (20-10, 12-4 AAC) defeated the visiting Owls for the second time this season with the score 89-80. 

When the teams met for the first time this season on Jan. 12, UAB came away with a 81-76 road win over the Owls. 

Both teams have one regular season game left of American Athletic Conference play. FAU is sitting at sixth in the AAC, while the Blazers are third.  

“At the end of the day, you got to be tough enough to win a game on the road. We did that last game but we didn’t do that today, so we will try to keep getting better in that area,” said FAU’s head coach John Jakus.

FAU’s center Matas Vokietaitis won the tip off and quickly guard Leland Walker knocked down a three to open up the scoring. This propelled the Owls to take a quick 8-point lead.

A little over two and a half minutes into the game, UAB’s guard Alejandro Vasquez responded with two points making the score 8-2. Vasquez then went on to score all six points for UAB within the 16 minute mark. 

By 14:14, UAB secured their first lead of the game with the score 13-12 and all the momentum in their favor.

FAU struggled to find points during the Blazers 10-0 run. The run was eventually silenced by Vokietaitis putting up two at the 12:41 time mark. 

The Owls trailed by four, but they went on a 9-0 run with multiple connections between Vokietaitis and forward Baba Miller to put them back ahead, 21-18.

Throughout the first half, the Owls had big blocks defensively by guard Devin Vanterpool, forward Tre Carroll, and Walker helped slow down the Blazers offensively. 

FAU led by four going into halftime with a score of 42-38. Florida Atlantic shot 61% from the field, 42% from behind the arch, and 43% from the free throw line. While UAB shot 41% from the field, 13% from behind the arch, and 75% from the free throw line. Both teams had an equal 19 total rebounds. 

After halftime, UAB had the first possession and wasted no time scoring. On the next play, the Owls turned the ball over resulting in another score for the Blazers tying the game 42-42. 

The Blazers had immediate control out of the locker room and gained their first lead since 11:49 in the first half, 44-42 with 18 minutes left in the second. 

In the first six minutes of the second half, UAB guard Ja’Borri McGhee dominated offensively with 12 points, compared to his 11 total in the first half.  

The Owls continued to lose possession of the ball allowing the Blazers to capitalize on their mistakes. 

FAU had 15 turnovers and the Blazers scored 21 points off of the Owls’ mistakes. On the other hand, UAB had three turnovers resulting in only three points for the Owls. 

“The ability to get to a shot without turning over was the issue,” said Jakus. 

Final statistics had Florida Atlantic shot 58% from the field, 37% from the three, and 53% from the free throw line. While UAB shot 47% from the field, 29% from the three, and 83% from the free throw line. 

Despite the Owls’ loss, Vokietaitis led FAU in scoring with 19 points and rebounded eight. 

“We are going to do everything we can to fix it by Sunday,” said Jakus responding to the importance of the next game. 

Florida Atlantic will host the East Carolina University Pirates (18-12, 10-7 AAC) for the Owls senior night and their last home game of the regular season on March 9. 

Emily Harper is a contributing writer for the University Press. For more information on this article, you can reach her at emilyharper2022@fau.edu.